An investigation of the Effect of Asymmetry on the Free Vibration Behavior of Sandwich Structure

Abstract

This study presents a free vibration analysis of asymmetric sandwich structures comparatively. Sandwich structures were manufactured by the hand-layup vacuum bagging method. Symmetric and asymmetric sandwich structures were analyzed experimentally to evaluate the effect of asymmetry on the free vibration characteristic of sandwich structures. Free vibration analysis was performed by using VIBXPERT II under clamped-free boundary conditions. The frequency response function (FRF) is obtained from the modal test. Modal parameters of sandwich structures were obtained from analysis by curve fitting to FRF using Matlab. The effects of asymmetry on the natural frequency of the sandwich structures are investigated and results are comparatively presented. The finite element method (FEM) was also implemented by using COMSOL Multiphysics® for verifying the selected system parameters and analyzing the experimental results. By the experimental study the accuracy of the model being having proven, it also has potential for the investigations of vibration behavior of the various applications including asymmetric sandwich structures.